MINNEAPOLIS — Three of the four officers who arrested and restrained George Floyd on May 25, 2020, did not act in accordance to use of force policy, a Minneapolis police inspector and longtime academy instructor testified Friday in the federal trial of three ex-Minneapolis officers in Floyd's death.
Inspector Katie Blackwell resumed the witness stand In the fifth day of testimony in the trial of Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, who stand accused of ignoring their duty to provide aid while fellow officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes as he pleaded for his life before falling unconscious and dying in May 2020.
Blackwell walked jurors through the department's training protocol before telling them that the actions of Lane, Kueng and Derek Chauvin were all "inconsistent" with the department's use of force policy — particularly when Chauvin planted his knee in Floyd's neck.
Blackwell testified that if a neck restraint were used, the policy would be to roll him to the side recovery position, particularly since Floyd, who was handcuffed, had stopped resisting. Additionally, Chauvin's use of "pain compliance" by twisting Floyd's hand was not necessary.
She said that as the first officers on scene, Lane and Kueng would have been in control of the scene rather than deferring to Chauvin, who was convicted in state court of Floyd's murder last year and pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges.
It was a continuation of Blackwell's testimony from Thursday, in which she said police are obligated to intervene if a colleague uses unnecessary force or puts someone in danger.
"If you're taking somebody into custody, whether for life-saving purposes or for violating the law," it's up to the officers to do "everything we can to protect that person," said Blackwell, who is the former training commander for the entire department.
Police training is at the heart of the case on both sides. In his opening statement, Kueng's defense attorney, Thomas Plunkett, said the department failed to adequately train his rookie client, especially when it came to intervention, which he likened to a word on a PowerPoint presentation.
Plunkett followed that theme in his line of questioning Friday, eliciting from Blackwell that recruits are trained to follow the lead of their field training officers or FTOs, who can essentially make or break their careers. Chauvin was Kueng and Lane's FTO.
"People get terminated from the department because their FTO is not satisfied with them, correct?" Plunkett asked.
When Blackwell replied that was not solely the case, Plunkett asked if it would surprise her to learn recruits see their FTOs as "terminators."
"That would surprise me," Blackwell said.
Asked whether Minneapolis police recruits are expected to give "Instant and unquestioned obedience," Blackwell said yes.
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